"Nouvelle Vague:" Richard Linklater’s Charming Homage to a Cinematic Titan

Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless, the film credited for kicking off the French New Wave, is one of the most legendary cyphers in film history, credited mostly to its paradoxical legibility. Here is a film that’s been picked apart and theorized to death and back in an attempt to understand its allure, yet it seems to wear itself inside out. Everything Breathless is doing is loud and obvious, intentionally blown up to gigantic proportions by Godard. The technique, the influences, the culture, the artistic intent; it’s all there in the first 5 minutes. Yet, that hasn’t stopped cinema lovers from poring over every little frame and detail for some 60-odd years. The magic of Breathless is a dynamic, ever-changing thesis, and the attempts to understand this transparent puzzle box has heralded what we now know as modern cinema. For proof of this, look no further than Richard Linklater’s newest film, Nouvelle Vague, the most blatant crack so far at opening Godard’s film as it aims to directly tell the story of the creation of Breathless from inception to final edit.

In many ways, Linklater is the perfect filmmaker for this kind of task. His meandering, narrative-resistant films crackle with the same punkish energy and pop-culture frenzy pioneered by Godard, and beyond artistic influence, it would seem like Linklater is just a big fan. With an unpretentious hand and the bleeding heart of a true cinema-lover, Linklater approaches his daunting subject with just the right attitude. Nouvelle Vague is a breezy and fun time at the movies, one that avoids the potential self aggrandizing nature it easily could’ve slipped into (and Godard himself is no stranger to). Yet, as fun as it is, its lasting impression is slight, and with the monolithic Breathless at its centre, Nouvelle Vague manages to end up eclipsing itself.

Nouvelle Vague above all else pays homage to its namesake. It’s stuffed to the brim with not only the attitude of the French New Wave, but the figures and places too. Linklater goes through great lengths to recreate the scene of late 50s Paris and it certainly pays off, if even just as a nudge and a wink to the fans. Each important figure of the New Wave gets a small moment, sometimes an important piece of the story like the interlude with Bresson, and sometimes it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flash like my beloved Alain Resnais. To seasoned cinephiles, this is like a sort of Disneyland and to those unfamiliar with the social politics of Cahiers Du Cinema, it’ll be like watching Avengers Endgame after a 20 year coma. It’s quite obvious that it’s made by a fan for the fans, and while that doesn’t make for a thought provoking narrative, it’s not inherently a bad thing. Window dressing or not, it is quite fun to partake in Linklater’s game of New Wave “I Spy”. 

Further dedication to the scene is demonstrated by an excellent young cast. Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, and Aubry Dullin are tasked with not only supporting the large ensemble but also doing justice to three icons of classic cinema. Whether the performances are accurate is hard to say, I certainly wasn’t in Paris in 1960 as much as I wish I was, however their performances fit nicely into the legend the film has sustained since its release. Zoey Deutch is the spunky professional Jean Seberg, the sought after cog in the machine of Breathless but a figure unwilling to be bogged down by the chaos around her. Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo captures the erratic swagger and charm that made Belmondo such a legendary star. And of course there’s Guillaume Marbeck, the frustrating but undeniable maverick Godard, who’s presented as every bit the button-pusher and genius he’s known as.

The performances don’t seek to upset the canon or extract a new unknown depth to these figures, they consciously play into their legacy. The cast doesn’t need to expand the ever-expanding Breathless but they fit neatly into its world. However, it’s not just the performances. Nouvelle Vague as a film is deliberate and aware of its proximity to Breathless. It’s seemingly more interested in homage and replication than inversion and expansion, and it gives the movie an underdog charm – an almost guarantee for any Linklater outing. Like how Jack Black’s Dewey Finn assembles grade school kids to play out his rock and roll dreams in Linklater’s own School of Rock, Linklater and his crew feel like film school grads paying respect to the movie they wrote their first essay on. It’s apparent that Breathless, beyond being important to film history, is deeply important to Linklater and co. It sidesteps telling its own story and sits next to the viewer to watch the film and celebrate what makes it so great. 

This deep admiration Linklater holds for Godard is a joy to share, and while it never becomes grating, it also prevents Nouvelle Vague from becoming a movie to sink your teeth into. It begins and ends at Breathless, starting without fanfare and coming to a slight end. Dictated entirely by Godard’s original, the film makes an excellent companion piece but ends up uniquely bound by its source material. Without Breathless there is no Nouvelle Vague, and not just in the obvious sense. Lacking the context of Breathless doesn’t create a disadvantage, it neuters the whole experience. Nouvelle Vague may be charmingly aimless but it isn’t plotless, it's about making Breathless, and outside of that it’s invisible. It’s fun in its scrappiness and wide eyed reverence, but it’s almost too feeble, and when that initial rush ends, it fades fast.

Breathless is an exhilarating, fun watch bursting with energy, so is Nouvelle Vague, but where Breathless continues to shift beyond the culture it poaches, Nouvelle Vague deliberately cuts itself short. Its success is somewhat contradictory, it works because it stands as a frail, starry-eyed companion to the mountain of Breathless but that forces it into a position where it struggles to stand as a full narrative. Yet, should Nouvelle Vague step beyond the shadow of Breathless, it risks losing the charm that makes it enjoyable. It’s a film that must settle into a comfortable runner up position and knowingly not shoot for that first place spot. To many that will be aggravating and to some, that affability is a selling point. What I would hope is that it’s the perfect kind of cinematic love letter that acts as an entry point to the magical French New Wave for young film fans, but I worry that its reliance on content and in-jokes may dissuade anyone not heavily steeped in the scene. And frankly, for those in the know, Breathless already has it all and Nouvelle Vague can’t expose anything that the original film hasn’t already. But still. In that middle ground is a perfect supplement to a great film and no matter how new or old you are to film, Linklater’s love for the classics is undeniably infectious.